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LED Notifications are back, thanks to FlashBlink

Did you know that the most common use of a phone camera’s LED flash was as a torch?

With the recommended removal of all physical buttons from Android 4.0 phones, some of these flagship devices are also missing a notification LED. But we now have a solution at hand, thanks to a developer over at XDA-developers – FlashBlink. Senior XDA member Faiyyaz says he decided to create the app when he saw a few people asking for something that would help them use the camera flash as an LED notification.

FlashBlink is not just another torch app, giving users the ability to get notified on incoming calls using the camera LED/xenon flash. This app is not the first of its kind, with the introduction of Flashlight Notifier and Flash Alert, but it is free and it boasts a very simple, easy-to-use user interface. After launching the app, the users are provided with two options – one to turn on and off the torch, and second, to enable or disable the flashing on incoming calls feature.

Although the developer mentioned that this app has not been optimized for ICS, the app was tested on a Samsung Galaxy S2 running Android 4.0.3. It did work as it was supposed to, with both the torch and the blink-on-receiving-incoming-call feature working well.

To install this FlashBlink, you do have to make sure that your device is enabled to download and install third party apps. This can be done by going to Settings > Security > Allow unknown sources. You can download the app here.

With an Android device currently being used in a multitude of ways, including calls, email, SMS, Google Talk, etc., I would like to see this app incorporate LED notifications for all these features, but we can expect this extra functionality to be added in time. What are your thoughts on this app? If you have downloaded it and tried it, do let us know in the comments section below.